Acts 17:18

And certain also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, What would this babbler say? others, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.

Epicurean and Stoic philosophers ... In Athens there were: (1) the Academy of Plato, (2) the Lyceum of Aristotle, (3) the Porch of Zeno, and (4) the Garden of Epicurus. Followers of Zeno, called Stoics, took their name from "Stoa," the Greek name of the painted porch where he taught. The groups mentioned here by Luke were the most powerful and popular at that time. The Stoics believed that the good life was obtained through resignation and the pursuit of what they thought was virtue, glorifying human reason and self-sufficiency. The Epicureans made pleasure the end and all of human existence.

Both philosophies, however, were outcroppings of a single basic error, that of the deification of humanity, an error that blinds the present generation no less than theirs. As Ramsay noted:

Practically, both philosophies made man and not God the ruler of life; and this denial of divine government issued in making the city of philosophers also the city where idols were most numerous. Those who made light of God were willing to accept and recognize any number of gods.[33]

Naturally, Paul's preaching of Jesus Christ and the resurrection would have challenged and denied such philosophies.