Bede : I found an altar with the inscription: To the Unknown God. God is known in Judea but not received. God is unknown in Achaia, although earnestly sought through many means. Therefore, those who do not know will be ignored; those who transgress will be condemned. Neither is free from fault, but those who have not offered faith to Christ, whom they did not know, are more excusable than those who have laid hands on Christ, whom they knew. — Commentary on Acts Clement of Alexandria : This discourse respecting God is most difficult to handle. For since the first principle of everything is difficult to find out, the absolutely first and oldest principle, which is the cause of all other things being and having been, is difficult to exhibit. For how can that be expressed which is neither genus, nor difference, nor species, nor individual, nor number; nay more, is neither an event, nor that to which an event happens? No one can rightly express Him wholly. For on account of His greatness He is ranked as the All, and is the Father of the universe. Nor are any parts to be predicated of Him. For the One is indivisible; wherefore also it is infinite, not considered with reference to inscrutability, but with reference to its being without dimensions, and not having a limit. And therefore it is without form and name. And if we name it, we do not do so properly, terming it either the One, or the Good, or Mind, or Absolute Being, or Father, or God, or Creator or Lord. We speak not as supplying His name; but for want, we use good names, in order that the mind may have these as points of support, so as not to err in other respects. For each one by itself does not express God; but all together are indicative of the power of the Omnipotent. For predicates are expressed either from what belongs to things themselves, or from their mutual relation. But none of these are admissible in reference to God. Nor any more is He apprehended by the science of demonstration. For it depends on primary and better known principles. But there is nothing antecedent to the Unbegotten. It remains that we understand, then, the Unknown, by divine grace, and by the word alone that proceeds from Him; as Luke in the Acts of the Apostles relates that Paul said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For in walking about, and beholding the objects of your worship, I found an altar on which was inscribed, To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." — The Stromata Book 5 Hippolytus of Rome : But a certain Cerinthus, himself being disciplined in the teaching of the Egyptians, asserted that the world was not made by the primal Deity, but by some virtue which was an offshoot from that Power which is above all things, and which (yet) is ignorant of the God that is above all. And he supposed that Jesus was not generated from a virgin, but that he was born son of Joseph and Mary, just in a manner similar with the rest of men, and that (Jesus) was more just and more wise (than all the human race). And (Cerinthus alleges) that, after the baptism (of our Lord), Christ in form of a dove came down upon him, from that absolute sovereignty which is above all things. And then, (according to this heretic,) Jesus proceeded to preach the unknown Father, and in attestation (of his mission) to work miracles. It was, however, (the opinion of Cerinthus,) that ultimately Christ departed from Jesus, and that Jesus suffered and rose again; whereas that Christ, being spiritual, remained beyond the possibility of suffering. — The Refutation of All Heresies Book 7 John Chrysostom : He did not find in the city a holy book but an altar to an idol with the inscription "To an unknown god." The holy Paul, who had the grace of the Spirit, did not pass by but turned the altar with its inscription on its head.… He did not omit what the idolatrous Athenians had written.… We see what great value that inscription produced.… Paul entered the town, found an altar on which the words "to an unknown god" were engraved. What did he have to do?… Did the words of the Gospels need to be declared? They would have mocked them. Or maybe the words from the books of the prophets or from the precepts of the law should have been talked about? But they would not have believed. What did he do then? He rushed to the altar and defeated them with the weapons of the enemies themselves. And that was what he said, "I became everything to everyone: to the Jews a Jew, to those outside the law as if I were outside the law." — CATENA ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 17.23 John Chrysostom : "On which was inscribed, To an Unknown God." The Athenians, namely, as on many occasions they had received gods from foreign parts also - for instance, the temple of Minerva, Pan, and others from different countries - being afraid that there might be some other god not yet known to them, but worshipped elsewhere, for more assurance, forsooth, erected an altar to that god also: and as the god was not known, it was inscribed, "To an Unknown God." This God then, he tells them, is Christ; or rather, the God of all. "Him declare I unto you," Observe how he shows that they had already received Him, and "it is nothing strange," says he, "nothing new that I introduce to you." All along, this was what they had been saying: "What is this new doctrine spoken of by thee? For thou bringest certain strange matters to our ears." Immediately therefore he removes this surmise of theirs. — Homily on Acts 38 John Chrysostom : "I beheld an altar," etc. This is why he says, "I look upon you as being more religiously disposed," viz. because of the altar. For say, of whom would it be properly said, "To an Unknown God?" Of the Creator, or of the demon? Manifestly of the Creator: because Him they knew not, but the other they knew. Again, that all things are filled with the presence - of God? or of Jupiter - a wretch of a man, a detestable impostor! But Paul said it not in the same sense as he, God forbid! but with quite a different meaning. For he says we are God's offspring, i.e. God's own, His nearest neighbors as it were. — Homily on Acts 38 Oecumenius : Two reasons are given for the inscription on the altar in Athens, "TO AN UNKNOWN GOD." For some say that when the Athenians sent Philippides to the Lacedaemonians about an alliance, at the time the Persians marched on Greece, a phantom of Pan appeared to him on Mount Parthenion and blamed the Athenians for neglecting him and worshiping other gods, and promised to help. Having therefore prevailed, they erected a temple to him and built that altar. And, so that they might be on guard for fear that the same thing happen again at another time, having presented some god unknown to them, they set up that altar inscribed "TO AN UNKNOWN GOD," saying that if perhaps some other were unknown to them, let this one be raised among them in his honor, so that he might be favorable to them, in case he would not be worshiped when unknown. Others say that a plague once fell upon the Athenians and consumed them to such an extent that they could not even bear their finest garments. Therefore those who were believed to be their gods were of no help. Realizing then that perhaps there was a god whom they themselves had left unhonored, the sender of the plague, they, fearing a new altar, and inscribing it, "TO AN UNKNOWN GOD," and having sacrificed, were immediately healed. Paul therefore says that this Christ Jesus is the God of all, although he also declared it to them. And the entire inscription of the altar is this: To the gods of Asia and Europe and Libya, to a god unknown and foreign. [LETTER OF ISIDORUS OF PELUSIUM, CHAPTER 45] — Commentary on Acts Tertullian : What absurdity! What need had they of uncertain gods, when they possessed certain ones? Unless, forsooth, they wished to commit themselves to such folly as the Athenians did; for at Athens there was an altar with this inscription: "To The Unknown Gods." Does, then, a man worship that which he knows nothing of? Then, again, as they had certain gods, they ought to have been contented with them, without requiring select ones. — Ad Nationes Book II